When we see records being broken and unprecedented events such as this, the onus is on those who deny any connection to climate change to prove their case. Global warming has fundamentally altered the background conditions that give rise to all weather. In the strictest sense, all weather is now connected to climate change. Kevin Trenberth

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Quantification of the troposphere-to-ionosphere charge transfer in a gigantic jet

Gigantic jets are the clearest manifestation of direct electrical coupling between tropospheric thunderstorms and the ionosphere. They are leaders1, 2, 3 that emerge from electrical breakdown near the top of thunderstorms4 and extend all the way to the lower edge of the ionosphere near 90-km altitude5. By contrast, blue jets6 and other related events7, 8 terminate at much lower altitudes. Gigantic jets have been observed from the ground5, 9, 10 and from orbit11. Some seem to be consistent with an upward-propagating negative discharge of 1,000-2,000 C km total charge moment change 9, but others have not been connected to distinguishable electromagnetic signatures10. Here we report simultaneous low-light video images and low-frequency magnetic field measurements of a gigantic jet that demonstrate the presence and dynamics of a substantial electric charge transfer between the troposphere and the ionosphere. The signatures presented here confirm the negative polarity of gigantic jets4 and constrain the lightning processes associated with them. The observed total charge transfer from the thunderstorm to the ionosphere is 144 C for the assumed channel length of 75 km, which is comparable to the charge transfer in strong cloud-to-ground lightning strokes.